Saskatoonberry pie

It's fruit season.

Therefore it is pie season.

Do not argue with the logic of the pie.

The pie must be obeyed...

I'm embarrassed to use an online photo for this (our was way better trust me), but some asshat stole my camera while I was on holidays, so I can't offer you any photos of Magnus' and my pie baking extravaganza on sunday afternoon. He had some saskatoon berries and I inherited some blueberries and had a shwack of peaches from holidays in B.C. so it was indeed time for pie. Magnus had wanted to try a gooseberry pie, but I've never made one and don't know anyone who has and have no recipe to go with, so he kept them for another time...he wanted to learn how to make proper fruit pies. I was happy to show him.

We made my favourite fool proof pie crust recipe which is conveniently enough for 4 pies. I made 2 peach pies, with my same recipe from my peach pie post last year. The remaining crust was free for us to make saskatoon berry and blueberry pies. I made the blueberry pie the same as the saskatoon berry one, as the regular recipe I have from my Mum is for wild berries, and I wanted to try something new. Usually I'm not too much a fan of saskatoon berries as they are rather seedy, but having never actually made one before I had to try it out. I hunted about for a good recipe for saskatoon berry pie filling and chose this one:

4 c berries
1/4 c water
2 T lemon juice
3/4 c white sugar
3 T flour
1 T butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 F.
This makes a 9 inch pie. In a large saucepan, simmer berries in 1/4 cup water for 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice with berries. Combine sugar and flour together in a medium bowl, then stir into berry mixture and allow to thicken up. Pour mixture into a pastry lined 9 inch pie pan. Dot with butter (optional). Place second crust on top of pie; seal and flute edges and cut a few vents in the top crust. I made little pie crust leaves and decorated the top...cuz that's what my grandma always did and she made the best pies ever. It make berry pies taste better - trust me :)

We baked the pies at 425 for 12 minutes with something underneath to catch the drips (trust me berry pies tend to make a BIG mess that is impossible to clean). Then we reduced the oven 350 F and baked until the crust was a nice golden brown (for ~35 min ). Let cool 30 min before you eat to let the filling set. Serve with some vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

All in all, another successful pie event. I have been given rave reviews on the blueberry and peach pies and have been told by Magnus that the saskatoon berry pie is also yummy.

It's berry season people! Get out there and make yourself some pie!

Another Mad Invention - Apple Gjetost Pie

Now that Magnus has explained the oddity that is gjetost, let me fill you in on our pie experiment. Magnus left a phone message about this whole pie combo a few weeks ago and since then I've been waiting for a time to have a few hours to try it out. First time we were thwarted by a lack of gjetost (tragic) at the local cheese emporium, but finally Magnus could find the cheese and I had a rainy sunday afternoon free...so it was, indeed, time for pie.

Well, I've always liked toffee and butterscotch, but have an aversion to overly sweet things...gjetost is brilliant in that it taste like toffee or some sort of caramel...minus the sweetness. It has the consistency of hard cream cheese, and is delicious in little nibbly quantities. How it melted? We had no idea...which made it more intriguing. As a kid I liked toffee apples...I just couldn't eat a whole one from all the sugar...this seemed like a perfect combination. Cheese and pie? Well, I've seen and tried the cheddar apple pie combo, and it never really was my thing...like too many pickles on a sandwich, the cheddar was overpowering and, in my opinion, detracted from a perfectly good pie...and cheese. Any cheddar apple recipes I found called for grated cheese in the crust itself or melted on the top crust, so I had to improvise...mad science indeed.
I did a bit more piesearch before starting, looking in my trusty Joy of Cooking for a good apple pie recipe (this book has *never* let me down and has tonnes of references on methods of cookery). I found a good recipe, and (as usual) cut back the sugar a bit, to let the flavour of the fruit shine through. I also decided to not make the pie deep dish, as I usually do, as I wanted the ratio of apples to gjetost to be one that would allow the flavour of both to shine through.

I used my favourite pie crust recipe (same as in the peach pie post below). I made the recipe, divided it into 4 balls, as it is for 4 pies, froze 3 of them, and rolled out the remaining ball for crust. I rolled out the bottom crust and pressed it into the pie pan. Then I got to the apple filling, a variation on the Apple Pie I recipe from Joy of Cooking:

-6 peeled thinly sliced gala apples
-1T lemon juice
-1/2 c white sugar (less than the 3/4 c called for in the original recipe)
-1/2 t cinnamon
-2 T flour

I mixed this all together and spread evenly in the crust. Apples shrink when you bake them, so I filled it 1 1/3 times full to get a decently thick pie. Then I sliced the gjetost about 1/8 inch thick and laid it evenly over the top of the fruit...like so:We had a brick of gjetost about 3 inches by 2 inches by 1 inch and used 3/4 of it...the rest of it went in our bellies while we waited. Yum. Then I layered the top crust over it all, wetting and pinching the sides with a fork and cutting some slits in the top.

Then it went in a 425° oven for 30 minutes, after which I turned down the heat to 350° and baked it another 20-25 minutes until the crust was golden and the filling was starting to bubble out the crust slits.
Not to shabby eh? We were excited...it looked delicious. We managed to distract ourselves for 15 minutes to let the pie cool and sit a bit before having some...with vanilla ice cream of course.

THE VERDICT:

As it turns out, gjetost and apples go brilliantly together in a pie. the caramel flavour of the cheese enhances the fruit flavour, but isn't overwhelming, and the usual sugary sweetness of caramel was absent, making for a rich creamy flavour. Decadent.
The gjetost didn't melt as much as it softened...it sort of fused to the crust and went a bit soft, like low fat cheese does when you broil it on toast. I give it two thumbs up. I will definitely make this again...and I highly recommend you give it a try, if you can hunt down some gjetost from your local exotic cheese shop.

I love being a mad scientist...:)

The Best Pie in the 'Verse

Every fall I've started the tradition of bringing back freshly picked, ripe peaches from BC. There are orchards in Creston BC, right near Shambhala and the fruit there is over the moon. The best peaches I've ever had.
Last year I brought back a flat of peaches and they all went ripe at the same time. "What to do?" I thought - as you can only eat so many peaches in a day without some unfortunate side effects...trust me.
"Make a peach pie" said the cat...so I asked my husband J's Aunt (who is the queen of all desserts) for her peach pie recipe.
"You'll love it -it is the divinity of all that is fruity and pieyey in this world" she said (OK, so I'm paraphrasing a bit here). I stole the crust recipe from J's Mom. It's a good crust, flaky and light, easy to make and it freezes well. Worth the bother.
And upon completion, I found it to be my all time favourite pie...and I do likes me my pie, so believe me when I say this: this pie? Eeez good.
This year, as a test to see if it really was the best pie in the world I did the same, more peaches from BC and more pies...and it was still glorious.
Oh yes. I just had a piece. The last one. Yum.

So I present...how to make Peach Pie. So you can yum it too...

First, ze crust:
(This recipe that makes enough for 4 pies(top and bottom)...but the dough freezes well..I usually make half and do 2 pies.) You can half it and it still works fine.

5 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 Lb lard
1 t sugar
1 egg whisked (This recipe that makes 4 crusts...you only need two...so improvise...or make 4...whatevah)
1 t vinegar
milk to 1c

Crumble first 4 ingredients together with knife or pastry cutter until lard is in tiny pieces, no larger than a pea. In a 8 oz cup, add the egg, beat it and mix in vinegar. Add milk up to 1 cup and stir well. Mix this in with the flour mixture and mix with hands to get a firm dough. Roll our on floured surface.
I lattice the top on peach pies, as it looks cool, and bakes better for me (less boilover) and better overall baking. Plus I'm shit at rolling out pie crust, so it's less of a hassle too. It's a bit of work to make a pie, so I usually make two and freeze one, after baking it. Then there's more pie later. Trust me. It's a good thing.

Focus.

OK...ze Pie Filling:
(for a deep dish pie - this is PER pie...for 2 regular pies multiply everything by 1.5)
6 c sliced, peeled ripe peaches
3 T cornstarch
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
2 T lemon juice
Sprinkling of nutmeg
A few T butter

Mix together all but butter and place in crust. Dot the top of the peaches and juice with ~9 butter pieces, about 1/2cm square. Lattice the crust top. Bake for ~ 40 minutes at 375 degrees.
Cool. Eat. Make groany noises.

So that is that. Enjoy the peaches while they are in season my lovelies. Soon the snow will take them away for another year and we'll have nothing but twigs and berries.
If anyone has any pie ideas send 'em my way. I love mad kitchen science! I will accept any challenge...but no raisins.
That is all.